I'm doing kindergarten at home with my almost-six, and have been wanting to make a special little toy/gift that plays in with the letter we learn each week. I made the first week and then kind of stalled but I only need to catch up to D.

Anyway, I'd love suggestions both for little homemade gifts/toys and for fairy tales.

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I know when my nearly-7 yo started to learn to read in first grade, they were told a story and drew the letter into a picture from the story each week. Then the children also made the picture. I don't have this book but it looks like a similiar idea.

We're doing the things you mentioned. Well, minus the writing. He has a late September birthday, so this is a bit of a transitional kindy/first grade year. I just wanted to add something special with each letter because I'm nice that way, LOL!

I know we don't have to go in ABC order, it just seems easiest at this point.

Thanks!

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I love this idea! I totally want to "steal" it and do something like this for my girls!
For "H" I'd do Hansel and Gretal- my girls love the idea of a real gingerbread house. What kid doesn't? That gives you several options right there.

I'd also take advantage of the popular children's stories that correlate other letters, like P- Princess and the Pea ( fun craft there too) or Puss in Boots, S Snow White & Rose Red or Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
What about favorite activities? Favorite or famous people? I really like the "I" with his story and family characters.

I have been really struggling in how I wanted to approach the alphabet/phonics with my daughter. She just turned three and naturally knows the majority of her letters and their sounds....... she is showing a great deal of interest in phonics but I have been dragging my feet hoping she would loose interest. Since she has not this seems like a nice approach.

Can you explain your approach further?

What are you doing with this lovely breakdown

A: Ah! (Star Money)
Star Money beanbags

I can tell you would read the story, play with the "gift" but what do you do with the Ah! (or in the case of B the bear)?

"There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way and not starting." - Buddha.

Ooh, that sounds fun! With my first, I actually bought a bunch of skeleton keys, only to find out later about the lead hazard in keys.

Well, I'll confess, I've fallen a bit with all this. I didn't get my usual planning time this summer and when I had the second miscarriage I got even further behind, and I've been flying by the seat of my pants. Someone mentioned earlier that you don't have to go in order, and had I been able to take the time beforehand, I would have grouped them together so there was sometimes more than one letter per story, and the stories matched up more to the seasons. Blessedly, we're only doing kindy (he turned six in September, so my compromise was that we'd work on letter recognition of the uppercase letters) and I have next year to do the alphabet all over again, hopefully a little more perfectly.

LoveOhm, this is what we do (ideally, on a good week,LOL!).
Sunday night, at bedtime, we tell the story of the week, such as Star Money/The Falling Stars. We don't really discuss it, unless he initiates it. We just let him sleep on it. We don't use a book, but tell it "from our hearts" as our oldest used to say.

Then on Monday, after circle time, which tends to be seasonal and doesn't really have to do with the story, we'll sit down and tell the story again. And as I tell it, I draw a picture. In the case of Star Money, I draw the little girl looking up at the star, and star's rays form an "A". When I'm done, I show it to him, and tell him that's the letter "A" and it says "Ah!" like we do when something is amazingly wonderful.

Then he draws the picture. His motor skills are extremely immature, so it's nowhere close to an exact replication.

We might do a little form drawing, slants and lines, circles, exercises that relate to whatever letter we're reading. For this one, I might draw a star and we draw the slanting beams coming down. This seems to help him gain a little bit of small motor control.

Then we'll do something active. We'll toss the beanbags and try to catch them in a basket, in an apron.

And that's it.

The next day, I might have him tell me the story, or maybe I'll tell it again from a book. Another day, I might have him tell it while I write down what it says.

We might listen to the sound and try to think of other things that start with that sound. Sometimes, I write these down and he draws pictures.

We also do craft and handwork projects that have to do with the story. We might say some tongue twisters. When we paint, color, or model with beeswax or playdough, it probably has to do with the story. We might bake something.

Keep in mind, though, that this isn't all, strictly speaking, Waldorf. We consider ourselves more Waldorf-inspired than purists.

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